Casinos and other forms of gaming are a particular example of an industry where electronic machines, such as, for example, microprocessor based gaming machines, are extremely popular. In a typical electronic gaming machine, such as a slot machine, video poker machine, video keno machine or the like, a game play is first initiated through a player wager of money or credit, whereupon the gaming machine determines a game outcome, presents the game outcome to the player and then potentially dispenses an award of some type, including a monetary award, depending upon the game outcome. Electronic and microprocessor based gaming machines can include a variety of hardware and software components to provide a wide variety of game types and game playing capabilities, with such hardware and software components being generally well known in the art. A typical electronic gaming machine can include hardware devices and peripheral such as bill validators, coin acceptors, card readers, keypads, buttons, levers, touch screens, coin hoppers, player tracking units and the like. In addition, each gaming machine can have various audio and visual display components that can include, for example, speakers, display panels, belly and top glasses, exterior cabinet artwork, lights, and top box dioramas, as well as any number of video displays of various types to show game play and other assorted information, with such video display types including, for example, a cathode ray tube (“CRT”), a liquid crystal display (“LCD”), a light emitting diode (“LED”), a flat panel display and a plasma display, among others.
The design and manufacture of such gaming machines and other electronic machines has become increasingly complex, particularly with the advent of multiple displays, sound output devices, touch screens, buttons, currency acceptors, card acceptors and an assortment of other peripheral devices that may be part of such machines. One type of item that can be found on many such machines is a “button panel” having a plurality of input buttons that are arranged or configured in a particular fashion for a user of the machine. As is generally known, buttons for such button panels tend to be relatively large and spaced apart from each other in a fashion that is distinctive from smaller keypad types of buttons and arrangements. In particular, such button panels can be found, for example, on coin-operated video games, video poker machines, video keno machines, electronic slot machines, and the like. One example of a generally well-known button panel could be the arrangement of buttons that typically exist on a video poker machine, the button panel for which can include one hold/drop button for each video poker card, a deal/draw button, a repeat bet button, one or more other betting buttons, a cash out button, and/or a service button, among others. While the entire collection of these buttons on the front panel of the video poker machine can be generally be referred to as the “button panel” for that machine, such a button panel might also include one or more other buttons located elsewhere about the machine, or could be a subset of all of the buttons on the front panel of the machine, as may be desired.
For many years, gaming machines were ‘standalone’ in that they had very limited ability to communicate with external devices other than Player Tracking systems. This of course has changed with the advent of Server Based (“SB”) games. This change introduced a need for what is called ‘dynamic buttons.’ In non-SB games, the function of a button often remained constant for the life of the gaming machine. However, in an SB environment, players may be given the option to select from a wide range of games which may in turn require that the function of each button be reconfigurable. Thus, dynamic buttons often contain an embedded, electronically controlled display whose display content may be controlled by game software.
A key benefit of dynamic buttons is flexibility. Dynamic buttons may display static content, dynamic content, or some combination thereof. For example, dynamic buttons may display static button labels or animated button labels. The content displayed on a panel of dynamic buttons may be fixed or coordinated between buttons (e.g., an animation across more than one button). The content displayed on one or more dynamic buttons may be generated locally (e.g., by a gaming machine) or received via a network.
Dynamic buttons may enhance player enjoyment and/or gaming machine usability. For example, dynamic buttons may allow the same button to be used for different features on the same gaming machine (e.g., within the same game). As another example, players may enjoy seeing video or animation displayed on dynamic buttons. In some embodiments, the ability to dynamically change what is displayed on a button may make it easier to provide clear instructions or other information to a player.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to develop improved techniques for providing dynamic buttons in a gaming machine.